Lotus Returns to Formula One for 2010

Formula One will be welcoming four new teams into the fold for the 2010 Formula One season and Lotus aims to be the best of the new teams that will be competing for the glory and fans of Formula One next year. Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne made this clear as he announced on Tuesday, Lotus’s intention to return to the grid and once again take its place beside the best in Formula One. Lotus has been absent from the Formula One grid since the 1994 Formula One season but this new partnership with the Malaysian Government and business entrepreneurs is set to bring Lotus back into the fold of Formula One.

Lotus is being realistic about their chances of competing for the Formula One World Championship in 2010 and they know they have a lot of work to do, just to get a car up to speed, let alone actually compete next year for the overall championship. They will need to get their team into high gear to able to field a team by the time the race in Melbourne is set to begin the 2010 Formula One season. Their desire and aim to be the best of the four new teams is a very mature and realistic goal and one they can achieve. If things go the way they’re planning, then they might be able to get their car up to speed by the time the middle of the 2010 Formula One season rolls around.

Lotus’s Formula One team will at first be based out of the UK headquarters of Lotus Cars, which is owned by Malaysian auto giant Proton, before being moved to a new Formula One base for the team at Kuala Lumpur’s Sepang International Circuit.

Lotus has twenty years of Formula One experience under their belt, their own factory in Norfolk that is set up and equipped for Formula One and the new facilities in Malaysia coming on line. They aren’t just any new Formula One team and they could be a substantial member of Formula One in the future, so it’s good that the FIA has recognized this fact.

Lotus is currently headed by Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia; Lotus already has a wind tunnel programme underway with Fondtech in Italy and will begin wind tunnel testing in the next few weeks. Lotus underwent an extensive and diligent application process to get to this point in their new adventure in Formula One, and they will be the thirteenth entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

“Image: Zuma Press”